OPUS and SONATA grants for scientists from the Silesian University of Technology

Scientists of the Silesian University of Technology have obtained funding for their research projects in competitions organized by the National Science Centre. The sum of all financing amounts to a total sum of over PLN 14 million

Grants from the National Science Centre went to researchers of the Silesian University of Technology. In the competitions Sonata and Opus, a total of 7 projects received funding.

In the OPUS call, funding was given to:

· Dr Hab. Artur Góra – project entitled: “Design of enzymes catalysing reactions at the solid/liquid interface,” value: 3,956,600 PLN.

· Dr. Hab. Anna Mrozek – Wilczkiewicz – project entitled “Metal chelators affecting iron metabolism as a tool for investigating undiscovered aspects of ferroptosis,” value: 3,608,760 PLN.

· Prof. Dr Hab. Denis Rousseau, the project: “Thousand-year changes in Serbian paleoDUST (SERDUST),” value: 1,949,198 PLN

· Dr Hab. Eng. Katarzyna Nowakowska - Langier, project entitled. “The role of pulsed plasma in magnetron sputtering method in shaping the structure of advanced layers of high entropy materials,” value: 1,165,742 PLN.

The OPUS competition is addressed to a wide range of people. Applications could be submitted by researchers who have at least one (published or accepted for printing) scientific work in their achievements, regardless of their degree or scientific title and without restrictions due to their experience in conducting research. The applications could include both domestic research projects and projects with the participation of foreign partners or with the use of international research facilities by Polish teams.

As part of OPUS 28+LAP/Weave, the National Science Centre (NCN) received 2039 applications, of which only 234 received funding.

In turn, in the Sonata competition, the funding received:

· Dr Eng. Andrzej Dzienia, project entitled: “Exploring the potential of monochial carbon nanotubes: Development of selective extraction using conjugated polymers,” value: 1,490,840 PLN.

· Dr Eng. Alina Brzęczek-Szafran, project entitled: “Sustainable phase-change materials with programmable thermal properties for heat energy storage,” value: 1,276,120 PLN.

· Dr Eng. Agata Wawrzkiewicz - Jałowiecka, project entitled: “The application of nonlinear methods of time series analysis in the study of ion channel activity taking into account possible collective phenomena,” value: 655,628 PLN.

It is worth noting that the SONATA 20 competition was addressed to researchers with a PhD degree obtained from 2 to 7 years before the year of application. The competition aims to support people starting their scientific careers in conducting innovative research. In this edition, 1179 proposals were submitted in the competition, of which 207 projects were qualified for funding.

In addition, two of our scientists received funding in the latest edition of the Miniatura-9 competition, also organized by the National Science Centre.

In the Miniatura-9 competition, the funding was awarded to:

• Dr Eng. Błażej Zdzisław Podleśny, project called “Between hammer and anvil: Pioneering research to clarify the problem of mass transport in liquid-liquid systems”, value: 49500 PLN.
• Dr Ida Skubis, project called: “Social Robots in Business: Ethical challenges and responsible management of artificial intelligence HS4 research trip”, value 19800 PLN

Congratulations to the winners!